Cop-basher Lalbaugcha volunteer arrested

A volunteer with the famous Lalbaugcha Raja Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal was arrested on Sunday for slapping an on-duty woman constable recently.

On the evening of September 27, constable Hira Pawar was deployed for crowd control in front of the idol of Lalbaugcha Raja.

When she tried to intervene in an altercation between Umesh Jadhav, 30, a resident of Lalbaug who volunteered at the mandal, and an unidentified person, Jadhav allegedly abused her and slapped her. He then fled from the spot.

After his identity was established through closed-circuit television camera footage, the Kalachowky police registered a case against him.

“Jadhav was booked under sections 353 (preventing a government servant from performing his/her lawful duty), 323 (inflicting a simple injury) and 504 (abusing) of the Indian Penal Code,” said Suresh Jain, senior inspector of the Kalachowky police station. He added that Pawar had identified Jadhav as the one who had slapped her.

Sunday's attack was the second such incident in recent times where a woman cop had been assaulted. When a mob went on the rampage during a rally held outside Azad Maidan on August 11 to protest against the alleged atrocities against Muslims in Assam and Myanmar, there women constables were allegedly assaulted and molested by the rioters.